Concept and Design of Anthropomorphic Robot Hand with a Finger Movement Mechanism based on a Lever for Humanoid Robot T-FLoW 3.0

Abstract

This work described a concept and design of an anthropomorphic robot hand for the T-FLoW 3.0 humanoid robot, which featured a mechanism based on a lever as its finger movement. This work aimed to provide an affordable, modular, lightweight, human-like robot hand with a mechanism that minimizes mechanical slippage. The proposed mechanism works based on the push/pull of a lever attached to the finger to generate its finger flexion/extension movement. The finger’s lever is pushed/pulled through a servo horn and a rigid bar by the affordable TowerPro MG90S micro-servo. Our hand is developed only as necessary to become close to human hands by only applying five fingers and six joints, where each joint has its actuator. The combination of 3D printing technology with PLA filament accelerates and streamlines the manufacturing process, provides a realistic appearance, and achieves a lightweight, affordable, and easy maintenance product. Structural analysis simulations show that our finger design constructed with PLA material could withstand a load of about 30 N. We verified our finger mechanism by repeatedly flexing and extending the finger 30 times, and the results showed that the finger movements could be performed well. Our hand offered excellent handling for the mechanical issues brought on by finger movements, one of the issues that robot hand researchers have encountered. Our work could provide significant benefits to the T-FLoW 3.0 developers in enhancing the ability of humanoid robots involving hands, such as grasping and manipulating objects.